Selden woman charged with DWI after strange crash caught on dashcam, police say

October 9, 2015 By LAURA BLASEY   laura.blasey@newsday.com

A dashboard camera shows the SUV crash head-on into Yana Krasnov's minivan at a Patchogue intersection on Thursday, Oct. 8, 2015. (Credit: YouTube / Andrey Krasnov)

A Selden woman has been charged with DWI after striking a family's minivan head-on twice and attempting to push it backward at a Patchogue intersection Thursday -- an incident caught on the minivan's dashcam, police said.

Linda Spina, 53, was taken to Brookhaven Memorial Hospital Medical Center to be treated for minor injuries and charged after the incident at North Ocean Avenue and Woodside Avenue in Patchogue, Suffolk County police said.

A camera on the minivan's dashboard captured the initial crash and shows bystanders futilely attempting to stop the female driver of a Honda SUV -- identified by police as Spina -- before she struck Farmingville resident Yana Krasnov's vehicle again.

Krasnov said her husband, Andrey Krasnov, 38, installed the camera more than a year ago.

The couple wanted the camera as protection in case of an accident, but hadn't been involved in one until Thursday, when Yana Krasnov was driving their two daughters, Alice, 7, and Yulia, 4, to gymnastics practice in Patchogue.

"If I didn't have a camera, it will be very hard to remember what happened because everything was blurry," Krasnov, 34, said at her home Friday. "I was in shock."

Andrey Krasnov uploaded the video to YouTube on Thursday night.

The clip begins as Yana Krasnov pulls into the left turn lane on southbound North Ocean Avenue. The SUV appears to try to turn left from Woodside onto North Ocean, but instead crosses the median and runs over a road sign before striking Krasnov's car.

A bystander who identified herself as an off-duty EMT asks Krasnov if she is all right while Krasnov comforts her daughters. As Krasnov calls her husband, the Honda driver is seen attempting to reverse while bystanders urge her to stay put.

"We saw that this lady that hit me, she's trying to drive again," Krasnov said. "They were screaming, 'Stop, stop!' "

The SUV reverses through the intersection and back to Woodside Avenue, then accelerates forward and hits the minivan again as a bystander runs out of its path. The SUV driver continues to push the minivan toward the next lane as Krasnov and her daughters can be heard screaming.

The video cuts out when Krasnov said she turned off her car, which deactivates the camera.

"I saw the smoke, I assumed it was from tires pushing the car," she said. "I was scared and turned [the car]off."

Police arrived a few minutes later.

Spina was arraigned Friday at Suffolk First District Court in Central Islip. She was released on her own recognizance, according to the Suffolk County district attorney's office, and is due back in court on Nov. 2.

Attempts to reach Spina were unsuccessful.

Krasnov said she and her daughters were unharmed, though shaken by what happened. Their minivan was badly damaged, she said.

Andrey Krasnov said he decided to upload the video in the hopes that he could prevent something similar from happening to others.

"You can actually maybe influence someone," he said. "People will remember this and stay at home" when they are intoxicated.

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